Baby chicks and salmonella- question

[averytds]

I have a 10yr old, 6yr old and 2yr old. We've had chickens since Feb '08. The kids have been told since day 1 to wash after handling the chickens or collecting eggs. I'm sure they have missed a time or two, but seems to be a given. 2yr old gets to put all the eggs in the cartons and heads straight for the sink after, so it appears to be sticking.

The kids aren't to play in the coop yard, but our chickens are let out to free-range and the kids do play in that yard. No probs so far. Always told to wash hands after playing outside anyways.

We do have one neighbor who will have our kids over to play in his yard, but won't let his kids come play in ours. He hasn't said anything specific, but I think it's because of the chickens. Doesn't bother me, his kids, his choice.

While I don't let the kids have anything with raw eggs in it, I still sample when they're not looking. It's funny whenever they hear the mixer. 6yr old always turns up and only asks one thing "Are there any eggs in that?"

 

[addicted2chicks]

Living in a bubble will cause more problems later when exposed to the world. Just practice good handwashing.
(This coming from a total germa-phobe

)

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

The day I picked up my chicks at the feed store, they had pamphlets on salmonella that included the importance of hand washing after holding the chicks.

My question - I have a 3 month old puppy that follows me out to the sunroom to feed/water the chicks. The chicks are going to be 7 wks old on Wed and going out to the coop this week if I can get finished getting the hardware cloth up to make it fully preditor proof.

Anyway - Roofus (red heeler/shih tzu) eats the droppings if he gets to them before I do. Is that harmful to him? He's been to it for a about 3 wks now since the girls starting flying out on to the rim of the stock tank. He has had no symptom but a coworker who had chicks in the past said I should get him treated for salmonella even though he has no syptoms.

Thoughts anyone?

Attached pic is Roofus guarding the chicks the day I brought them home Feb 21,09

 

[bethandjoeync]

we have had chicks for 2 weeks now, and we were told to wash hands after touching the chicks or chickens or whatever had to contact with them. but we normally just keep a little hand sanitizer around. I am one to think that if you shield yourself from all the germs and stuff in the world then you are worse off than not. but we have a 9 month old baby, so I try to at least give my hands a rinse when I come in from the coop. but she has touch a chick and I have held one then held her, and nothing so far.

 

[packmomma]

Sweet Cheeks I used to breed boxers and I fed them an all natural diet. They ate raw chicken from the time they were able until they were sold. I never had a problem with any of them getting sick or anything. I seriously doubt poop would be a problem. My dog wont leave the chicks alone either. Drives me nuts! When they get to running around she whines..and when one is churping loud..she runs over to see whats going on. Its hard to keep her away.

I would say call and talk to your vet and get their opinion. I dont do anything unless there seems to be a problem. Dogs seem to eat far worse things and live to bark about it.

 

[terri9630]

~*Sweet Cheeks*~ :

The day I picked up my chicks at the feed store, they had pamphlets on salmonella that included the importance of hand washing after holding the chicks.

My question - I have a 3 month old puppy that follows me out to the sunroom to feed/water the chicks. The chicks are going to be 7 wks old on Wed and going out to the coop this week if I can get finished getting the hardware cloth up to make it fully preditor proof.

Anyway - Roofus (red heeler/shih tzu) eats the droppings if he gets to them before I do. Is that harmful to him? He's been to it for a about 3 wks now since the girls starting flying out on to the rim of the stock tank. He has had no symptom but a coworker who had chicks in the past said I should get him treated for salmonella even though he has no syptoms.

Thoughts anyone?

Attached pic is Roofus guarding the chicks the day I brought them home Feb 21,09

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/24846_roofus_guarding_chicks.jpg

My dogs have been eating the chicken poo for 7 weeks now and haven't had any problems. They will also eat the cat, horse and cow poo. No point in treating them for something that isn't making them sick. Some people are just overly parinoid.

My mother in law thinks I should get rid of my horses because I fell off and broke my collar bone. I told her that I fell off a swing when I was a kid and broke my arm, does that mean I shouldn't let the kids play on swings? If I got rid of, or quit doing everything that could hurt I might as well be dead.

If you go to the link the other poster gave you and go to quiestion 10 it addresses salmonella and dogs.​

 

[Akane]

Salmonella is everywhere. You can get it from most any food source, fish tanks, dirt, animals.... We have an immune system for a reason. We never washed hands after playing with animals. Only before eating or if we got obvious dirt on them. We never got sick. We had horses, dogs, cats, guinea pigs, gerbils, hamsters.... I handle my chickens many times a day, kiss my chicks, hold them up to my face, and then go type on my computer or something. I don't wash my hands unless I get chicken poo on me, after I use the restroom, or before I go to cook food. I absolutely never use antibacterial soap (evil stuff). I get sick maybe once every 2 or 3 years. I never get colds or the flu. It has to be something serious like last time this horrible stomach virus that had me throwing up blood. No one could have an immune system against that crap.

Really I would not worry so much. There are far easier ways to get salmonella poisoning and a little exposure isn't a bad thing. It sets up the immune system to prevent a true problem when you finally do get exposed to a large amount.

 

[chicklips]

Hand washing is good, reduces germs. As for the dogs eating chicken poo, don't worry about it, dogs can stomach all sorts of gross things.

 

[briteday]

I'm more concerned about contaminants on my hands making my chicks sick, since they don't have much of an immune system at theat age.

Dogs lick their behinds and then lick us...and I don't know a whole lot of people that give me lectures about that. Cats carry toxoplasmosis and we only hear about it if we are female and pregnant. All of us have bacteria in our gut to digest our food. But most of us don't do much besides wash our hands after toileting.

Eggs come out of the same opening on chickens that their waste comes out of. But I don't know of a whole lot of folks that worry about eating eggs.

My daughter is 17 now. As a toddler I let her be around everything and everyone, sick or healthy. I even sat her in the bathtub with the three little girls next door while they had the chicken pox, trying to expose my daughter so she wouldn't have to get the vaccination. (she never got the chicken pox and has had to have the vaccination plus a booster since the vaccination is not as protective as actually getting the chicken pox) I refuse to buy anti-bacterial soap. Good old-fashioned soap and the friction from scrubbing your hands is more important than the ingredients of the soap (ok, I worked in a hospital lab for many years and had daily direct contact for 8 hours testing known positive HIV specimens and I lived to tell the tale). My daughter was allowed to play in the dirt, kept every know bug, lizard, and other animals as pets until it was time to let them go again. I only enforced handwashing before meals. And she's a healthy teenager today, even after finding her with my work shoes in her mouth one day when she was about a year old!

Worry more about leaving your tooth brush out in the open near the flushing toilet, the sponge that you dampen and wipe the counters with, not using bleach when you wash your whitey-tidies and then proceding to throw a batch of towels in the same wash machine...

 

[danielbrown]

Quote:
Exactly
If you don't get any exposure to build up immunity, then everything makes you sick.

I'd be more worried about getting salmonella from a kitchen sponge than a chicken